Consumer electronic devices, such as portable computing devices (e.g. smart phones, laptops, tablets, etc) typically use lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. With the ever increasing functionality of such devices, the demands on battery technology are increasing rapidly. Battery performance is increasing year-on-year, but these improvements are linear compared to the exponential Moore's Law growth in the performance of the electronic systems they power. To address these requirements, new battery chemistries are being developed; however, whilst a particular new battery chemistry may offer benefits in one area (e.g. speed of charging), there is typically a trade-off against another characteristic (e.g. storage capacity).
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known methods of managing battery use.